I am about to seam a sleeve on a sweater that’s done in reverse stockinette. I have found several tutorials on mattress stitch in reverse stockinette for the vertical seams, but I’m coming up completely blank on the horizontal seams under the arms. I am joining two bind off edges together. Can anybody help me find a tutorial for this? Preferably with video, pictures or diagrams - I always have a really hard time following written directions when it comes to stuff like this.
Thank you so much!
I found some videos that might be helpful. I don’t know which might prove better than others so I’m just posting the link for the search results. HTH
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mattress+stitch+on+cast+off+edge&sm=1
Thanks, but I don’t see reverse stockinette in any of the videos?
Edited: I’m now also realizing that the search above is for mattress stitch tutorials - I already found a couple of reverse stockinette mattress stitch tutorials. What I need is a tutorial for the horizontal underarm seam - in other words, how to graft two reverse stockinette bind off edges together.
This is the only link I have for grafting reverse stockinette. And a caveat emptor, grafting tends to work best on live stitches…
Got sidetracked by Christmas 
Thank you for the reply, I have seen that link before - as well as other tutorials for grafting live stitches, but my mind simply can’t process how to transfer the instructions to bound off stitches. So I’m as stuck as I ever was.
If nobody knows of a video or illustration of how to faux graft bound off reverse stockinette, could someone then please explain how kitchener stitch on reverse stockinette would differ from regular stockinette? So on regular stockinette you go under the two bars at the top of the v on the bottom fabric, then on the top fabric you go under the base of the v - how do I transfer that to reverse stockinette?
I’m using this video as a guide to setting in the sleeves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y54VettP-RA#t=196
Thanks for your help!
I’m guessing that if you turn your work over with the knit side facing, you could work the Kitchener stitch that way.
I’m confused about the grafting part. It’s been my understanding that grafting requires live stitches. Could someone please enlighten me?
It seems to me that when you’re working mattress stitch and you’re not certain exactly where to make the stitches, the best thing is to try something and see if it works well. You can always pull it out and redo it. Experimentation leads to all kinds of interesting discoveries and lets you learn things you might never know otherwise. Be brave!
It also seems to me that you graft live sts. Mattress stitch will seam the two bound off edges. Those generalizations may only operate at my house however.
I tried seaming two bound off samples of mattress stitch and it worked fairly well. I just tried to stay on the same row of sts without particular regard for the stitches. You could also use a back stitch (as in sewing) to seam this area.
That looks good to me. I don’t see the contrasting yarn after it’s been pulled snug. Since it’s under the arms, I think nobody is likely to notice anyhow so even if it is slightly less than perfect it should be just fine.
Salmonmac thanks for the sample! I’ll try to see if I can work it out.
I’m confused about the grafting part. It’s been my understanding that grafting requires live stitches. Could someone please enlighten me?
Google told me that mattress stitch is what is used on vertical seems, and grafting is used when joining live stitches. Supposedly the proper term for this join is ‘faux grafting’, ‘faux kitchener’ or just ‘horizontal seam’. The thing is that I’ve never really seen anywhere that uses the terms ‘faux grafting/kitchener’… I have, however, seen a couple of places that use plain old ‘grafting’ for horizontal seams on bound off edges (including the video linked to above), I haven’t seen any page that refers to it as mattress stitch, but I may just have skipped over those thinking that that wasn’t the kind of stitch I was looking for.
Basically it now seems to me that all of these terms are pretty much used interchangeably for horizontal seams - which doesn’t exactly make it easier when you’re trying to learn!